Three Beautiful Things 05/03/14: Wild Ales Round 1, Sour Beers with Phil, Wild Ales Round 2

1.  Once I knew today wasn't going to be a photo stroll day, I went to Sixteen Tons for Round 1 at the Wild Ale/4th Anniversary Fest and immediately ordered a taster of the beer brewed specially for this event:  Breakside, with some input from Sixteen Tons, brewed a special saison called, "Saison from Hell" and it was tasty, especially, for me, as it warmed up a bit.  Everything I tried was in tasters, not even filled up, about an ounce and a half of beer, and it was perfect to be able to try several beers and not load up on alcohol.  I loved Goose Island's Sofie and Juliet (Lolita was not part of the festival).  I enjoyed trying a really funky beer, Grassroots Arctic Soiree.  It was so different, so grassy, so earthy, so, well, funky, that I sort of laughed my way through the ounce and a half.  It was one of those "I've never tasted anything like this" laughs.  It was a perfect hour or so of drinking sour ales, wild ales, of drinking funky beers -- and I was glad I tucked a chunk of ciabatta bread in my pocket before I left the house.  It helped scrub my tongue of one beer before I tried another.

2.  There's a good guy named Phil who I see often at both Sixteen Tons locations and Mike introduced me to him today and he moved to Eugene a little over two years ago from Hawaii and we had a good session together, commenting on the beers we were tasting, talking about neighborhoods in Eugene, and telling each other about our future plans.  He's looking for a house to buy or a property to put a house on.  He's been taking his time, looking for just the right spot, and I enjoyed listening to what he hopes he'll find. 

3.  Phil took an intermission from the Wild Ale Fest and, a bit later, so did I.  We both knew we'd be returning after a rest from beer sampling.  I returned with the Deke and when we arrived at Sixteen Tons, Phil was leaving.  He reported that there were still plenty of great beers available.  I should say there were.  The tap/bottle list of beers to sample had seventy beers on it!  The Deke is not into the sour beer thing at all, so she enjoyed some Firestone Walker Winter Wookey and dove back into the sours and wild ales, a Logsdon here, an Upright there, another Goose Island Juliet, some Cascade, with a lot of focus on fruits, on blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, and cherry sours.  Loved every one of them.  The Deke took a tiny sip from each taster, grimaced, told me I was drinking vinegar, and wondered how I could stand that stuff, and moved back to her Winter Wookey.  All I could say was, "I love this stuff!" Round 2 was fantastic, just like Round 1 had been.  If I had someone here at home to share sour beer with, I would have bought a bottle or two, but, alas, the bottles just have too much volume for me to drink alone.  No problem.